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RBS boss Hester rejects £1m bonus

Royal Bank of Scotland chief executive Stephen Hester has turned down his £1m bonus.

The move was announced last night after Labour made clear it would force a Commons vote on the bonus, which amounts to a £963,000 shares-only payment.

Chancellor George Osborne welcomed the decision and called for Hester (pictured) to continue in his role.

He says: “This is a sensible and welcome decision that enables Stephen Hester to focus on the very important job he has to do, namely to get back millions of pounds of taxpayers money that was put into RBS.”

Although the Government owns 83 per cent of RBS, the bank remains a public company run by an independent board of directors. Ministers have called on Hester to forgo his bonus, while Prime Minister David Cameron has also come under pressure to address Hester’s bonus.

Labour leader Ed Miliband says Hester has “done the right thing” but attacked Cameron’s handling of the issue, according to the Telegraph.

RBS chairman Sir Philip Hampton had already announced he would waive his payout. Hampton was set to receive 5.17 million RBS shares in February but told the bank’s remuneration committee it would “not be appropriate” to take a £1.4m payout.

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19th December 20188:33 am

Comments

There are 3 comments at the moment, we would love to hear your opinion too.

No doubt there’l be plenty of politicians and tabloid ‘journalists’ (I use the term loosely) congratulating themselves that their combined efforts have brought about this decision by Stephen Hester.

It is a hollow ‘victory’. He’s an excellent CEO and will probably choose to go elsewhere (who could blame him?)- somewhere his skills will be better valued and where he’ll relatively free from interference. Who will want to take his place? – there are plenty of easier jobs in banking which pay much more money (Barclays for example) so they only way to attract decent talent will be to pay considerably MORE than they’ve been paying Hester.

No exactly a victory for common sense, is it? Perhaps I’m naive to expect any common sense from politicians and journalists (with a few notable exceptions).

That all said, the remuneration of many senior people in the banking sector is far too high and something does need to be done about it but ignoring contractual obligations is not the way to do it.

What nonsense! There are many jobs in this country that are hugely stressful but the vast majority aren’t rewarded with million pound bonuses. It’s not even like RBS is doing well! The warped sense of entitlement that comes from those working in the City is one of the main reasons we’re in this financial mess.

And this idea that there wont be anyone willing to do his job is ridiculous. The world is full of ambitious, talented and qualified people. As with every other competitive industry there will always be someone willing and able to take Mr. Hester’s place.

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